Be an Informed Home Buyer

The whole point of assembling an expert real estate team is to cover your bases and make sure everything runs smoothly. However, even experts make mistakes, and ultimately your home purchase is your investment; you’re the one who has to live with it until you sell it. Be an informed buyer, and understand the process well enough to offer input on your deal.

Stay in the loop.

First and foremost, don’t just assume that your real estate team can handle everything without you. Don’t take a back seat on your home purchase. You need to be aware of what’s happening, any deadlines that are approaching and where things stand with your deal. You don’t need to check in with your professionals daily, but stay informed enough that you can recognize when things go off track, and follow up with the people who are supposed to be handling aspects of your deal.

There’s a fine line between being informed and being a nuisance, though, so try to avoid crossing into the realm of counterproductive, overly-obsessive follow up. Be reasonable, and remember that the people you’re dealing with are people, too, with their own schedules and timeframes.

Read a book or do some research on the Web.

Plenty of books exist to help you understand the home buying process, and you can also find great resources on the Web. You don’t need to be an expert, but you should have a basic idea of what to expect, and when to expect it, when you’re buying a home. Take the time to read a book about buying, and follow up with some Web research about any concepts you don’t understand or gaps in your knowledge.

Ask questions if you don’t understand.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions as you go through the home buying process. You should work with professionals who are willing to explain concepts and what’s going on with your deal as you move through the purchasing process. Again, there’s a line between being informed and being counterproductive and actually hurting your deal, but good professionals can keep you informed without reaching that line. You don’t necessarily need to be obsessive about every detail of your deal, but if there’s a concept or deadline that you don’t understand, ask.